


at the bottom of everything

by la_victorienne



Category: Torchwood
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-05
Updated: 2008-07-05
Packaged: 2018-10-16 00:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10560478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_victorienne/pseuds/la_victorienne
Summary: ianto is getting dressed for a date.





	

His da always said you could tell a lot about a man by the kind of tie he wore – the knot, the shape, the color. Ianto isn't sure, but he's pretty well convinced that the one he's knotting right now absolutely screams 'dead man;' the dark crimson against a white shirt looks oddly like a noose in the glass, as if what he's about to do equates the short drop and sudden stop, as it were. Ianto sighs, scrubs a hand through his hair, and abruptly yanks the dark tie off, ignoring the imagined sound of his father's indignant gasp as it rings in his head. It joins the six other ties lying on his dresser – green, black, blue, purple, grey, striped. None of them seem right. Not for tonight. Not for this.

His hand, rifling through the drawer, closes on a brightly coloured piece of silk, the fabric subtly textured to counter the borderline-garish hue. Something inside him clicks and the tie is over his head, knotted, and tucked into his waistcoat smoothly before he can change his mind again. He shrugs into his coat just as his doorbell rings.

“I didn't bring flowers or chocolates, sorry if that's a – oh, wow,” Jack says as Ianto opens the door. “It – ah – matches your cheeks,” he says, and Ianto smiles that cat-in-the-cream smile.

“Acceptable?” he asks. Jack swallows and nods.

“More than. Unexpected. Noticeable. Really, _really_ attractive.” It's a full-blown grin this time, and he steps out of the flat with a fairly certain idea of where this night will end, and when.

 

It's definitely the tie, Ianto thinks, as the backs of his hands slam into the wall behind him and Jack sucks hard on his neck. Or maybe the fact that he's been gone for three months, or maybe Ianto's new cologne, but he's pretty sure it's the tie, because Jack can't stop talking about it. Like a pink tie is the missing piece to Jack and Ianto's sex life, like it's going to fix all the things they have to actually talk about, and soon. Which, quite frankly, is ridiculous, so Ianto bucks his hips and bites Jack's ear and says “get it off of me already” and Jack yanks at the knot with his teeth.

And as he's being backed into his own bedroom and clothes are flying everywhere and he realizes he couldn't care less, he wonders how they managed to get from there to here, when the first time Ianto knotted a tie for Jack Harkness he planned to betray him and when this last time he planned to make love to him. Whatever Jack says to explain his leaving, Ianto knows that in this place and this time, all it takes is one pink tie and good intentions to keep Jack for as long as he wants him.


End file.
